Monday, 23 March 2009

"Partial results showed Mr [Gjorgje] Ivanov - the candidate of Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski's VMRO-DPMNE party - to be ahead with more than 35% of the vote.

The race for second place was between Ljubomir Frckoski, who is backed by the Social Democratic SDSM, and former Interior Minister Ljube Boskoski, who was acquitted by the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague last year.

This result means that there will be a second round on 05 April 2009, the day of the Moldovan elections. Observers called these elections peaceful, remarkably after the electoral violence in 2008.

The conduct of these 2009 elections are seen as a mayor indicator for the continuation of the step-by-step integration of Macedonia into the European Union.